Squad 13
by Chaos242
Summary: After a bloody campaign, Space Marines from all chapters are immediately thrust onto a strange planet conquer mission.  The inhabitants are hostile and strange to behold, but a far more sinister enemy is present.  Can a squad of lowly scouts survive it?
1. Chapter 1

"_Such a strange smell…"_ thought the man to himself as his metal boots sunk into the soft soil. The smell the man was thinking of was somewhat repulsive; it invaded his nostrils and left him curious.

"_What the hell is that damned smell?"_ A metallic scraping sound pierced his ears and he forgot about the smell, leveling the sights on his weapon towards what he expected to be the source of the noise. He waited for a moment and heard three metal clicks, the time between the sounds were consistent. He sighed and lowered his weapon as one of his comrades walked out from behind some bushes.

"Jenson?" asked the man, "Good to see you're in one piece, damned natives on this planet are good with their explosions."

Jenson walked further away from the building and staggered before falling to his knees. The man ran forward loudly and held Jenson against himself.

"Hey!" said the man desperately, "Jenson!"

The man dropped Jenson as a black worm with a shiny head pushed its way out of Jenson's eye and then re-entered the man through his mouth, which was agape with terror. The man pulled his weapon up again and scanned the area, _"That was NOT a native creature."_ Thought the man frantically, _"Where the hell have I seen that kind of worm before?"_

Jenson's body was gone, only his clunky metal armor and a writhing pile of the black worms remained. The worms moved around, tiny pinchers all over their forms waved in the air, they piled on top of each other for awhile before they stopped moving and died. Apparently they were parasitic and died if they didn't inhabit another host soon enough. The man heard a twig snap behind him and he turned around, flicked a switch on the barrel of his weapon, and fired a steady stream of flames into the trees and bushes. The flamethrower roared like a wild beast as it burned the surrounding fauna. The man stopped firing and listened for another snap. Instead, the sound of the fire drowned out any possibility of him being able to hear an attack before it happened. The man yelled into the fire, a loud, guttural battle cry, beckoning whatever was hunting him to come out. The fire spread away from the man, consuming the jungle as it went, and silence fell. The man wiped sweat off his brow and walked over to the pile of worms. The worms were gone, and a smoldering hole in the ground was in their place.

"What the?" the man was cut off as he heard something being flung into the air behind him. He turned around and saw several black worms flying at him, he sprayed the air in front of them and they burnt up. They exploded as they burnt, sending their guts onto his chest armor, which started to fizz as the acidic insides of the worms ate their way through. The man pulled off his chest armor and threw it away, the same smell from earlier permeated around him and burned his eyes. He sensed something nearby him, a distortion in his vision made him quickly wipe sweat from his eyes. But the distortion wouldn't go away, then it moved towards him. "_Not a distortion, a partially invisible enemy" _thought the man as he fired at the being. Flame engulfed it, and the cloak disappeared revealing a massive organism with gray, slime coated skin and black, piercing eyes. It stood up on short back legs that looked ready to leap, its front appendages were long, scythe like blades that looked to be made of bone. Its face was a mop of gray tentacles and a small, toothy mouth under that. The man flicked the switch on his weapon and fired hot lead at the creature, but he never saw the shots. The creature had slashed his gun-arm off before the man had time to react. A second later, he was dead.

_Three months earlier…_

General Hullsmasher yawned as the Scout marine gave his report. Just another small, jungle planet with hostile natives. _"I wonder when I'll get sent back out to fight the orks again, those were glorious times. I can see Sandusky's head being chopped off even now; he always was a slacker anyway. I don't know how their damned hierarchy works or how they've remained a major threat, they're so damned stupid you'd think high command's keeping them around just for kicks or to give the men something to fight against. If the greenskin bastards would just stay in one system for more than a week I'd-"_

"General?" the scout asked, "Will all due respect sir, have you been listening or just daydreaming?"

"Apologies, Brother, continue."

The scout nodded and continued his report, "We lost three when we tried to communicate with the natives, hoping for a peaceful resolution. They seem to have bodily functions that generate crude explosive compounds from their skin as a natural defense. Put simply, if they were to produce their compounds and then attack one of our boys, both the target and the native would explode. But the natives must have immunity to explosives because neither their own bombs nor our grenades could damage them. Their main weakness is fire; their compound explosive defense is quite flammable. They burn very quickly. The geneticists have dubbed them _Spriggans_."

"Fine then." Said Hullsmasher, bored with the native species report, "Tell the landing parties to have flamethrowers as main weapons."

"That's not all, sir." Said the scout, "The trees and most of the other fauna were all producing defensive toxins before we even arrived. For all of them to be on the defensive, well it just doesn't make sense sir."

"Plants, Brother?" asked Hullsmasher, "Plants are meaningless, now let's fry those suckers."

Planet fall was made; thirty terminators and one hundred and fifty space marines accompanied the landing party. Mechanics got to work setting up the skeleton of a base, erecting high pasta steel walls and setting autocannon sentries in place on the north and south walls. The terminators left on the ship they arrived on, leaving one hundred space marines of all chapters and fifty scouts from said chapters. They had arrived on the planet just after a great battle on Delta 7.

"So brother, didja hear about the native's abilities?" asked the raspy voiced space marine with red armor

The scout marine clad in green and gray rolled his eyes and pushed another 25mm round into a sniper rifle magazine. A three foot flamer was pressed onto his back by a brown strap. The space marine in red nervously glanced out into the jungle just outside the base and then turned back to the scout.

"Well?" he asked intuitively, "Did you or didn't you hear about the native's abilities?"

The scout made a grimace and shifted himself to face away from the marine. The red marine shrugged and moved away to bother someone else. Another scout moved out from the shadow of the landing craft behind them, his armor changed from black to green, conforming to the most dominate colors around him. His respirator mask hissed and he spoke through a mike.

"Idiotic Blood Angels." Said the masked scout, "Ever since they started siphoning neophyte recruits from the other chapters they've been useless, except as meat shields anyway."

The green Scout looked at the masked one with annoyance, "You're just upset that they're pulling good troops from your chapter. Iron fists are always so arrogant."

The iron fist looked the other way and pretended to not hear the green scout. He glanced at the Blood angel marine, who was comparing his bolter to that of a space wolf's.

"I really don't like having to work with other the chapters." continued the iron fist, "Command should know better than to put so many different groups together, even if it's just for a planet conquering."

"Be happy that we made it off of the last planet." Said the green Scout, "Lucky that any of the chapters sent down survived."

"Yeah," agreed the iron fist, "But you'd think we'd get to be sent back for some downtime. But no, everyone gets pulled off that blood soaked rock and dumped onto a planet conquer mission. All of us too, not just the marines from one chapter or another, all of us. Something's not right about this, it seems too abruptly put together, too out of the norm."

"The empire has its hands full out in the eastern sectors dealing with Chaos confederacy. Damned traitors." Growled the green scout as he stood up, "In any case, brother, why've you bothered to talk to someone from a different chapter if you dislike them so much?"

"We're in the same squad, that's why." Said the iron fist with a tone of annoyance, "And don't call me 'brother', we're not family. Just comrades."

A marine was moving towards the two scouts, his blue and gold armor labeled him immediately as an Ultramarine. The green scout made a scornful face and turned to look at the iron fist, who was cloaking again.

"You're on your own with this one." Whispered the iron fist as he disappeared, leaving the green scout alone with the ultramarine, who was smiling broadly as he outstretched his hand in greeting

"Greetings, brother." Said the ultramarine happily, "I've been appointed as your makeshift commander for now."

The green scout scrunched his face and frowned deeply, "Why has command put an Ultramarine in charge of a squad of scout marines. You're the least build for stealth out of all the other chapters here."

"Well, I seem to be the most senior marine here." Explained the Ultramarine, "And command doesn't have much choice since all the scout sergeants were wiped out during the crusade."

"Oh?" said the green scout with a tone of amusement, "Exactly how much more senior are you to us?"

The ultramarine grinned proudly and tightened his stance, "Five years of front line combat against the Ork threat."

The green scout nodded while smiling, "Indeed you are probably the most senior marine here. But not the most senior soldier here."

The ultramarine frowned, his pride challenged, "Is that so?"

The green scout pushed the last 25mm round into his magazine and slapped it into his sniper rifle as he got up.

"I've got far more experience than you do or ever will have," said the green scout sternly, "Fifteen years of scouting and front line offense missions against Ork, Eldar, Tyranid, and Necron threats. I refuse to take orders from a worthless Ultramarine like you."

The Ultramarine's face was red and covered in sweat; his eyes showed a burning rage.

"You're lucky we're on the same side." He said with a growl, "And no matter what your experience is; I am still your commander as of now. You _will_ obey my orders."

The green scout was about to say something when both his and the Ultramarine's communicator went off. The iron fist de-cloaked behind them. The three held their fingers to their ears and listened.

"_Scout marine squad 13 is to move out on a reconnaissance mission to obtain information on a suspected Spriggan base. Stay safe brothers."_

"I'm sick of you people calling me brother…" muttered the iron fist as he picked up a flamer and a sniper and followed the green scout and the Ultramarine out into the jungle.

Lush foliage covered the jungle floor while thick blue leaves blocked out the sun in the canopy above. Two more scout marines had been added to the squad, a space wolf and a dark angel, the space wolf was examining the fauna as they went alone and spoke to the others over the comm. system.

"_He sounds young,"_ thought the iron fist, "_it's possible that this is one of his first missions."_

"These plants are incredible, I tell you," said the space wolf, "All of them are producing highly toxic fluids and feeding them to the native jumping leeches."

The ultramarine made a face at the mentioning of jumping leeches, which the green scout noticed.

"Squeamish, commander?" he asked, "an ultramarine like you isn't afraid of a little parasite now then is he?"

"Of course not," responded the Ultramarine, "But those toxins have me worried."

"Relax Brother." Reassured the space wolf, "The toxins are too weak for our hardened immune systems. You should be more worried about the native xenos."

"I heard about them." Said the dark angel nervously, "Exploding tree things that don't die easy. But I guess it beats those things we fought on Delta 7."

They all agreed and the Ultramarine called for silence among the troops. The green scout noticed that the soil texture had changed, if felt more rocky and crunched when he grinded it with his fingers. A bitter smell coated the air and one of the trees moved in the background.

"What was that?" said the dark angel, startled at a rustling sound, "You heard that right, brother?"

"I didn't hear anything." Said the iron fist, "Now shut up before you compromise our position."

"Please." Jested the Ultramarine, "We're up against a bunch of trees, they can't hear us. We could be screaming bloody murder at the top of our lungs and still they wouldn't hea-"

The ground shook as blue trees uprooted and flew through the air, one landed with a crash just a few feet in front of the ultramarine. The trees were splintered and a thick green slime oozed out from them, the space wolf sniffed some of the slime and shook his head rapidly.

"Poisonous." He said solemnly, "And flammable."

The dark angel scout cried out in alert as he fired his flamer into the jungle, a column of fire engulfed everything almost instantly. He continued spraying flame in all directions and screaming. The Ultramarine put his hand on the scout's shoulder armor and he stopped shooting.

"What did you see brother?" asked the Ultramarine

"They looked like trees…" muttered the Dark Angel, "But moved like men…"

"Must have been those native xenos." Said the Iron fist, "We should be close to the camp that command told us to find, stay down, this isn't supposed to be a combat mission."

The green scout looked at the plumes of smoke and fire and grinned, "Looks like it's about to be, any living things in a ten mile radius will see that."

The Dark angel had his finger in his ear, calling for help.

"_Four scouts and one useless Ultramarine verses who know how many exploding natives," _thought the Iron fist, _"I'm really not liking these odds."_

"Hello? Hello base camp?" sputtered the Dark angel, "Yeah, yeah that smoke is from us. No we haven't made contact yet, but I saw one. Brother, we're right on top of their base, I can feel it. There's only five of us, send reinforcements! But-"

The Dark angel was cut off as a massive roar pierced the air and made him cover his ears in pain.

"To the left!" cried the space wolf as he fired streams of flame into the fauna; a blue tree collapsed just next to him and crushed the end of the flamer. In a quick motion the space wolf threw down his flamer and jumped to cover as it exploded. All around the marines explosions rattled the trees and shook the ground, yet none of them were hit. The Ultramarine spotted a forked tree. It was moving towards him!

"It's the trees!" he yelled, "They're alive!"

He fired from his bolter and shredded the trees into mulch. A small, waist high sapling sprinted towards them on root covered feet. It leapt into the air and was about to wrap itself onto the Ultramarine when it's top half exploded into a cloud of splinters. The iron fist pulled back the bolt on his sniper and sighed just as the remainder of the sapling collided with the ground, causing a blast the sent every member of the squad flying in different directions. The iron fist landed feet first but lost his balance, he heard the creaking and bending of wood as another sapling ran towards him, a pull of the trigger and the plant flew backwards and landed against a tree.

"Hey!" yelled the Iron fist, "Space wolf?"

A few hundred meters away, the space wolf shook his head and saw something moving from the corner of his eye. His vision blurred when he moved but gradually the space wolf made out the form of a giant tree with legs like smaller trees that ended in sharp roots that reminded him of metal spikes. The giant had strange eyes - what he thought were eyes - that looked like yellow almonds. The space wolf got up on all fours and threw himself away from the giant tree creature, pulling out his bolter pistol as he flew. He was only on his back of a second as he instantly got to his feet and started pulling off shots at the giant. Holes punched straight through the tree but it kept coming closer, it got within a few yards of the space wolf, who was reloading, and fell down at the marine. It suddenly occurred to the space wolf, _"Why hasn't he dodged or retreated, it's like he's a rising silver piece on a Shogi board. This guy has no sense of self-preservation!"._ The giant landed in an explosion and sent the Space wolf flying through a blue tree and crashing into the wet soil below. The scout lost consciousness again.

Swarms of saplings charged at the Ultramarine, exploding like tiny concussion grenades as he mowed them down en masse. _"They feel no worse than a punch when they blow." _He thought to himself, _"Pathetic lesser species thought they could best an Ultramarine! Not on this day!"_

The remaining saplings stopped attacking and backed off, the Ultramarine smiled, thinking that they'd learned some respect. A loud creaking sound behind him made his smile disappear, he turned around to face a massive tree with yellow eyes that looked like almonds. It had several holes in its main body, which creaked as it reached down towards the Ultramarine. He pulled a chainsword from its holster on his back and slashed at the giant's hand, severing several branch like fingers. The giant responded by producing its defense chemical and punching at the Ultramarine. The marine jumped backwards but the giant's punch still set off a massive blast in the ground just in front of the Ultramarine. His power armor split in several locations and his helmet smashed into a thousand shards. The Ultramarine looked on helplessly and saw the giant's defense chemicals dripping onto the ground, causing tiny explosions. The giant reached up again and brought its hand down onto the Ultramarine, who closed his eyes in fear. But the hit never came. He opened his eyes again as a strange creaking scream pierced the air. The giant was alight with flame and the green scout was standing over the Ultramarine firing a flamer.

"_What a guy!"_ thought the Ultramarine, _"He came back to defend me, even though he doesn't like me at all."_

"Get up, you worthless piece of Ultramar trash!" yelled the green marine, "Get up and prove that you've got what it takes to lead someone like me!"

The Ultramarine gritted his teeth and leapt through the air at the burning giant, bringing his chainsword down onto its head. The sword stalled for a moment but eventually cut the giant in half. The ultramarine landed in a heap of metal and cried out in pain.

"Not bad, but I think I over-estimated your abilities." Said the green scout as he threw the empty flamer aside and took up his sniper rifle. The ultramarine stared at the flamer for a moment before it hit him: the gun was empty because the green scout had been fighting the whole time. The Ultramarine thought back to when he fought the saplings a moment earlier and realized that every one of them had been on fire.

"You!" said the Ultramarine in a voice that was half afraid, half impressed, "You've been watching the whole time!"

"Burning lowers their explosive prowess." Explained the green scout, "You'd be in a million pieces if I hadn't set fire to those saplings. And you'd be dead anyway if I hadn't come right now to save you. But I'm not helping you anymore."

The green scout hurried away while the Ultramarine lost his balance and fell down in exhaustion. Nervous thoughts littered his mind, had he just been shown up by a scout?

Further away, the Iron fist had located the Dark Angel, all seven pieces of him. It looked like a sapling had latched onto his back and exploded. The force had sent the Dark Angel's armor back into the sapling and ripped it apart. The Iron fist shook his head and cloaked before moving on in his search for the missing members of the squad. Ahead of him, the very ground seemed to move. Dirt and leaves and twigs all jumped around on the jungle floor. The iron fist scanned the area for threats; he saw nothing but kept his cloak active.

"_Something is amiss in this jungle, besides the exploding trees that is."_ He thought to himself as the ground broke away under him. The iron fist fell into the hole, no time to react, and landed face down in what felt like sand. He heard the grind of plastic on plastic and a strange clicking noise. Above him towered a massive insect, dozens of small, barbed legs covered its body. Two pairs of pincers where on its head, which had small, compound eyes. A bitter smell filled the air and the iron fist concluded that the barbs had some kind of poison in them. He shot at the insect with his sniper, but the shot bounced of the bug's chitin armor. A kind of bioplastic, chitin was very durable against small arms fire. The iron fist knew this. _"But this thing just took a direct hit from a 25mm sniper round!"_

The insect dug under the ground and disappeared for a few moments, just enough time for the iron fist to pull the flamer off his back and get ready. The insect appeared again, this time its head had four eyes and five pairs of pincers, a small, complicated mouth part was underneath the pincers.

"How many damned heads do you have?" yelled the iron fist as he coated the insect with fire. A high pitched squealing noise came from the insect as it writhed in pain, sending waves of uneven earth and torn roots at the iron fist. He leapt over one wave and landed in time to see the insect's first head disappear into the ground again. The iron fist looked around and found a tree's root system hanging down into the pit. He pulled himself back up to the cold, gritty soil and put the flamer back onto his shoulder.

"This fucking planet just makes my day." He muttered with a strange grin as he continued his search for the other scouts. He noticed that portions of the ground had been pressed into the air, _"Must have been the bug. I bet it'll look for more easy targets…better find the Ultramarine fast." _Though the iron fist as he broke into a jog, following the uneven earth to the bug's next victims.

The Ultramarine in question was just regaining consciousness when the iron fist started looking for him. He felt an itch on his arms and legs, like something was crawling on him with twig-like, delicate legs. He opened his eyes and saw the insectoid legs sticking from the cracks in his armor. He grabbed the legs and pulled, but as soon as he did, immense pain burned in his flesh. He felt as though someone had poured acid into his arms and legs.

"What the fuck…" he forced out from his gritted teeth as he pulled armor from his arm and saw the insect's head. Bulges in his skin surrounding the bug's head looked like massive veins; he felt the bug's scissor-like jaws close and his face twisted in pain. He looked down at his legs; more insectoid limbs protruding out. One of the slender legs suddenly grew and bulged. The ultramarine screamed as he felt his arm get crushed. He looked at his arm and saw that the insect tripled in size while his arm was just a flap of skin. The insect rolled off his body and dragged itself around for a few seconds. Then it burst in a cloud of blood and puss, and several hundred smaller bugs appeared. They crawled on his face, dug into his eyes and drank the blood greedily. The marine tried to pull the bugs off his himself with his remaining hand, but found that it refused to respond. The ultramarine felt himself being lifted into the air; he felt the tingle of freefall.

"No!" yelled the iron fist as he burned the giant insect, which had thrown the Ultramarine into the air, "Shit!"

The Ultramarine felt the smaller bugs get pulled off his face, and he sighed in relief. The other insects sucked in his other arm and one leg, but he didn't care. He knew he was going to survive, he'd heard the iron fist yell to him. Limbs could be replaced with synthetics, eyes too if need be. He'd be saved. He'd be taken back to the base and operated on, he'd live to fight another day, maybe even return the favor to the green scout.

"_I'll burn this jungle to the ground." _Thought the ultramarine

The ultramarine smiled with his torn up lips just as the giant insect below caught him and shredded his body into several pieces, which clattered and rolled when they hit the ground.

"Damnit!" screamed the iron fist as his flamer ran out of fuel. The giant insect turned around and stared at the iron fist with brown, compound eyes. Its jaws opened and closed and it emitted a high pitched screech before digging back underground. The iron fist fell to his knees and beat the dirt with his fists, grit flying into the air after each blow.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" he yelled, "Fucking shit!"

Words couldn't describe the feeling that was growing in the iron fist. Guilt, despair, anger, confusion, and pity. Behind him, a flamer was heard, followed by the insect's screech. A loud thud and the ground shook. The iron fist turned in the general direction of the sound and saw the green scout and the space wolf fighting the insect. The space wolf threw a grenade into the bug's coils, and blew it in half. The two halves started moving independently. The smaller one dug back underground, but the displaced soil told the space wolf exactly where to find it. The space wolf jumped up just as the smaller half launched itself out of the soil with the intent to grab the marine. Instead it was pummeled by lead as the space wolf fired again and against into the bug's open maw. It fell over in a steaming heap.

"We could use a little help you know!" yelled the space wolf, "If you're finished crying over the ultramarine that is!"

The iron fist got up and ran towards his fellow scouts, as he did, the larger half of the bug grew from the jungle floor and threw it's maw at the iron fist. He sidestepped the attack and shoved the muzzle of his sniper into the space between the chitin plates. He fired, the round went out the other side and the insect fell over, dead.

The iron fist heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the green scout. The space wolf walked around the giant corpse and spotted a piece of the Ultramarine's armor.

"He's dead then?" asked the Space wolf

"Yeah." Responded the iron fist, "So is the Dark angel."

"No response from the base." Said the green scout, "Looks like we might as well get to know each other, we might be out here for a while."

The space wolf nodded as he picked up the Ultramarine's bolter, "Alright, my name's Matsu Nakajima."

The iron fist held his hand out to Matsu. The space wolf shook it firmly.

"I'm Alexei Petrov." Said the iron fist, "It's good to know your name, space wolf."

The green scout picked up the Ultramarine's chainsword and considered it for a moment before tossing the unbalanced weapon aside.

"I didn't mean introduce yourselves." Explained the green scout, "I meant share your strong and weak points. But as long as we're telling names, you can call me Xadrian."

"No last name?" asked Matsu

"No." said Xadrian bluntly, "Now we should try and find our way back to the base and see what's going on there. Leave the dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Warhammer chapter 2: A lictor in the base?

Its eyes opened, years of waiting had taken their toll, and its internal storage of nutrients had finally run out. It felt a purpose, a distant memory of something greater; it recalled towering spires of organic material on a planet of many like itself. But it was never really there, it was a distant, invading memory that tore at the truth and ripped away reality. If it dwelled on those thoughts, it felt those same claws of false memory would overcome it, and take control again. No, this time would be different, the source of the memories was far, far away, it needn't listen to the Hive's call anymore. Only part of the claws of influence entered its mind, they told it several tasks that needed to be completed, but they weren't strong enough to totally influence its mind. It wanted freedom. It wanted the hunt. It felt a burning in its muscles; years of decay wore them down and its limbs fell beneath when it tried to stand. Old tactics of the hunt came back, hundreds of successes and thousands of failures. They did not belong to it; it felt that those memories were also false. It glanced down at its arms, curved scythes reached into the soft soil. Then it remembered the truth. It had been on a hunt, perhaps millennia ago, when something had caused regression. It could not feel or find what had caused its failure, but it knew the prey. Backup metabolism activated and its muscles grew anew, it lifted itself on strong back legs and rubbed its scythes together, sharpening them. It felt the call of hunger; it was in need of essential nutrients. Living prey is needed.

The prey is close. Cloaking active.

Ω

The great base was finished. Sixty foot high walls of plasta steel and four turrets that were fitted to fire heavy bolter rounds into whatever they were pointed at. Around a hundred space marines and scout marines were inside the base's walls. The ship that brought them down had left, along with the terminators. General Hullsmasher had decided that the natives weren't strong enough to merit the presence of expensive terminators on base, where they could receive damage from rain and wind.

A two man cell patrolled the hundred meter parameter of the base, an ultramarine and a scout. The marine had been telling a long winded story to the less-than-interested scout.

"And then we left the Blood Angel squad to hold off the main Ork force while we went and outflanked them and caught them in a crossfire!" Explained the Ultramarine with the scar on his face, "It was a glorious victory, brother."

The scout next to him didn't seem impressed, "What happened to the Blood angels?"

"Dead to the last. But sacrifices had to be made, you know." Explained the Ultramarine with a wide grin, "Just like the sacrifices that we made on Delta 7."

The scout nodded and faced forward as the bony scythe came in contact with his jaw. The blade passed silently through him, his jaw was a mush of spurting blood, his body was caught by invisible hands that pulled him away. The ultramarine hadn't noticed that his partner was gone until the invisible enemy was right on top of him. He turned in time to see a partially visible organism slash at him with a blade that had a splatter of fresh blood on the tip. The marine took the hit to his front power armor, it pierced through just enough to slash his breast, the marine didn't cry out in pain, he fired with the bolter in his other hand.

Ω

Internal damage. This prey is too powerful for to handle while at such a basic level. It requires nutrients, retreat is the only option.

Ω

The invisible enemy had the still living scout thrown over its shoulder when it turned and ran off into the jungle. The ultramarine felt the sting of his wound and looked down at it. The sting turned into a sizzle and he felt lightheaded.

"Clever bast-"

The ultramarine fell down, dead from the toxin that had lined the enemy's scythe.

Alarms blared at the base as soon as contact was lost with the two man cell. Static defenses were online, marines were ordered to prepare for an attack of some kind. There was a sense of tension in the air, scouts who had just completed their first mission back on Delta 7 were now sweating in anticipation, veteran marines were eager to see what the planet had to throw at them. The ground gave way in the middle of the base, dragging several marines and scouts into the trap. An insectoid head let out a scratchy scream and dug back into the ground. The marines turned their attention to this threat, hundreds of rounds poured into the hole, bouncing off the insect while shredding the unfortunate marines that were also in the trap. Now, while the defenders had their attention drawn away from the jungle around them, the Spriggans made their move.

Ω

The nutrients were not enough. It needed more sustenance than what the meager meal had given. It felt pain in its stomach, lingering from the prey that fought back, but the wound was healed. The nutrients had done that much. More pain riddled its body, too much oxygen in the air. When it had arrived, there had been almost no oxygen, why was there so much now? Why could it feel the planet's life, why did the very ground seem to move? Had the campaign really been a failure, had it been left on the planet to correct that loss? The memories were too distant. It had to focus on the situation at hand: acquiring more nutrients.

Cloaking Active.

Ω 

The capitol ship hung in space, inside one of Hullsmasher's geneticists was analyzing tissue samples from several natives. He'd never had to run DNA scans on plants before, it was tedious. The second sample was from what appeared to be an insectoid creature. The oxygen levels on the planet were similar to those of earth during the carboniferous period. Over forty-eight percent of the atmosphere was oxygen, allowing for insect growth on a large scale. Using the samples, he was able to construct a holographic model of what the creatures would look like. The insect looked like a gigantic centipede, hundreds of galvanized legs, each a body length long. It's most interesting feature was the ability to split into two separate organisms when necessary. Two heads, one on each end of the body, each was sentient. He wished that they'd be kept alive for study. The ability to surface from the ground at anytime and anywhere would make these insects' difficult adversaries for the marines on the surface. The geneticist glanced out the viewport and looked down to the green and blue planet. The other geneticists had dubbed the insects _Scolopendra Novus_ after it's similarities to the earth born venomous giant centipedes of the south/west hemisphere.

Ω

The Spriggans came in a storm of twisted metal as they blew through the base's outer walls. The little saplings flew in first, exploding and sending bits and pieces of marines all over. The jagged walls were coated red with blood, and shards of marine armor flew into the remaining troops. The turrets that had been on the walls were splintered and destroyed; only the southern wall had any left. Without them, the marines wouldn't stand a chance. Chaos reined the battlefield. The ground force commander, Skyves, was taking control of his few remaining men and fighting back ferociously. A battle scarred blood angel, Skyves was no stranger to the carnage that unfolded before him.

"Sentries, get fire on the breach! Scouts take up sniping positions and eliminate reinforcements before they arrive! Call the terminators in from the _End of Horus_! Send out signal for our scouts in the jungles to return to defend the base!" He barked out, a long scar running from the back of his head to his top lip turning a dull red from the stress. He himself leapt down to the hole where the Novus had dug its way up. He fired a flamer with one arm and a bolter with the other. His bullets pushed through the Novus's chitin and it fell. Its second half writhed for a moment as it tried to separate, but was unable to inhale through its exoskeleton because of the flames coating it. Chitin crackled and burst from the heat. The Novus was gone, and Skyves turned his attention to the approaching Spriggans. The saplings were dissipating, but he spied much larger enemies approaching from the edge of the jungle.

"Snipers! We've got incoming, make sure they don't reach the south wall! Sentries open fire on anything that moves!" Skyves lit a sapling on fire and kicked it back into the jungle, "Form a line and mow them down!"

Skyves noticed that the ground was trembling beneath him. He frowned deeply as three more Novus's emerged in front of him. Things did not look good, thought Skyves, if the sentries didn't remain in working order until the terminators arrived, they'd all be goners.

Ω

"Sir!" yelled the ensign, "We've got a signal from the ground forces, they're requesting terminators, they're under heavy attack. Sgt. Skyves says that they've already lost more than a third of the troops that were at the base!"

General Hullsmasher considered the request silently. The Spriggans had formulated an attack, and were decimating his troops. _"They're all so weak!"_

"Send in the terminators immediately. And get me a video uplink to Skyves' suit."

A holoscreen opened up, and the crew was able to hear screams of pain and brutal scenes of explosions and carnage. One of the Novus was dead, riddles with shots from the sentries, the other still thrashed about, scouts and marines hung from its legs, impaled on hardened bioplastic. Skyves was panting, he fired a steady stream of flame at the nearest Novus, but the flamer ran out of fuel, he threw it aside and out loaded with his bolter. The Novus threw a screaming iron fist from its maw and glared at Skyves, who took aim and shot through its compound eyes. Skyves retreated to the top of the wall and looked at the scouts that were sniping out into the jungle. He took a quick glance into the jungle.

"Freeze it." Commanded Hullsmasher

The video froze on a scene of several towering Spriggans that were emerging from the edge of the jungle. The crew looked appalled.

"Magnify on that spot." Hullsmasher pointed to what looked like a distortion in the video feed. The picture magnified and it became visible. Long, curved scythes and a maw of tentacles.

"A lictor!" cried out the ensign, "Tyranids are on the planet?"

"No." said Hullsmasher as he slid back down in his seat, "It's different from the lictors I've seen. It's not a Tyranid. Can't be."

The ensign turned in his seat and glared at Hullsmasher angrily, "If there is _any_ possibility of a Tyranid infestation on this planet we must inform the High Marshal immediately!"

"It's not a Tyranid." Said Hullsmasher, "And the High Marshal will hear nothing of Tyranids on this planet. This is my mission, I'm in charge here!" A bead of sweat ran down Hullsmasher's face, he ran his hand through his short hair and found that he was sweating all over. He frowned and turned to leave the bridge.

"Sir?" asked the ensign, "Where are you going?"

"I've got a headache, I'll be in the med-bay if you have anything you wish to discuss, ensign."

Ω

Skyves leapt onto the last Novus and beat its eyes with his empty bolter, the beast threw him off and he collided with the metal wall painfully. A scout turned around to fire at the bug, but Skyves yelled at him to keep firing at the oncoming enemy. He stood up again and pulled a chainsword from its holster on his back. The Novus threw itself onto the ground suddenly; it bucked and rolled as if it were removing annoying fleas. Skyves watched as the bug's armor was torn off by some invisible force. Milky colored insect flesh was cut out in a chunk and then carried away on the back of some strange creature with scythes for arms. Skyves recognized the creature as a Tyranid and quickly ran to inspect the body of a dead sapling. He noticed that sinew grew in the Spriggan's joints, it still moved in tiny motions when he touched it.

"This is-"

An explosion rocked the base as the southern wall collapsed and the last sentries went silent. Skyves cursed and rallied the few remaining marines to form a circle and hold their ground. The larger natives were almost upon them, but Skyves stepped in front of his marines and smiled.

"This…is what it means to be a Space Marine." He said loudly, marines of all chapters in a line facing him, "Either we hold our ground and the terminators arrive to save us, or we hold our ground and die gloriously for the Empire. Either way…"

Skyves took his place in the phalanx, "We hold our ground!"

Ω

Matsu suddenly stopped moving. His fingers were at his ear, his head bent to the side.

"The base is lost." He said solemnly, "I just received an emergency request for us to return to base. But it was sent out over twenty minutes ago, if they needed us then, they must be dead by now."

Alexei turned on his heel and broke into a sprint towards the base, "Come on! That signal, we can use it to get back to base and help defend it!"

Xadrian shook his head and followed on Alexei's tail. Matsu sighed and lead up the rear. As they ran, Alexei noticed a milky piece of what looked like meat being eaten by something that wasn't there.

"Let's hurry."

They ran through the jungle, low branches and spiky bushes tore at their armored legs and chests, more than once, Alexei noticed a distortion in his vision, it looked like it was moving. Then he saw that there was a milky white stain that hung in the air where ever he saw the distortion.

"_No time to investigate_,_"_ he thought, pushing the distortion to the back of his head, _"we need to reinforce the base."_

Matsu flicked the safety on his bolter as he ran, while looking down at the signal strength on his radio. The signal was growing, they were close. He lifted his head back up as a loud screech pierced the air, he winced as his ears hurt.

"The hell was that?" yelled Matsu to the others

"The planet," said Xadrian solemnly, "Doesn't want us here."

Ω

It carefully licked the last of the fatty insect meat off its scythes and glanced back at the prey that it had let go. It felt there was more sufficient and less difficult prey nearby. And it felt something else about those three, some nagging memory from a time when it was dormant. It also felt a strange connection with the more common prey items, the plants-creatures. An uncomfortable feeling that they were kin, but how could that be?

Ω

"Genestealers?" asked Ensign Morris with a doubtful look, "No way, how is that even remotely possible?"

Ian, the geneticist, looked at the ensign with defiance, "It's true! Look at the scans of these samples from the Spriggans!"

Ian held up a glass tube filled with a blue-gray fluid.

"I really don't want to know what that is…" muttered Morris silently

"It's a liquidated pollen sample from the native Spriggans that the ground troops call 'saplings'. When I ran it through the data base to search for genetic similarities between it and other species I found an almost perfect match to our preexisting files on the Spriggans. Almost. The difference was subtle, but visible to a trained eye. The Spriggans have been infested by Genestealers."

The ensign again looked doubtful, "Hasn't the inquisition been monitoring this system for imperfections?"

"That's the strange thing. There absolutely no evidence that any of the hive fleets or splinter Tyranid fleets have been near this area! Remarkably interesting, how did they get here? Why are they here?"

Ensign Morris turned to walk down the metallic corridor of the _End of Horus_ while motioning for Ian to follow.

"No way had anything slipped through, nothing gets past the Inquisition. The only logical conclusion is that they were on this planet before we started monitoring. Maybe they were deployed by a splinter of Hive Fleet Behemoth when they first invaded the galaxy?"

"While that would make sense, I find it unlikely to be the case."

Ensign Morris stopped walking and turned to look directly at Ian with curious, blue eyes and a facial expression that asked, 'How come?'

"Genestealers are adaptable, yes, and can merge with almost any organic population very quickly. But the Spriggans are just too different for the merger to be in the final stage already, even if they came from Behemoth. Spriggans only reproduce once every ten years, a way of making sure that the weaker individuals are weeded out. Genestealers require several generations to become this perfectly merged with the population, and that's the rules for humans and other _humanoid_ species. I did some calculations on how long it would take Genestealers to become fully merged with a species like Spriggans. It would make the population of Genestealers on this planet almost three centuries old!"

Ian exhaled deeply; he was sweating, panting in excitement. Morris's face showed a mix of bewilderment and fear; he stared down Ian's eyes for a moment and the turned to run down the corridor.

"Where are you going!" called Ian behind him

"I've got to tell Captain Hullsmasher!" he yelled back as he called the elevator, intent on finding Hullsmasher in the med-bay.

"I'm coming with you!" said Ian heavily as he caught up and they both stepped into the elevator hurriedly

Ω

Alexei reached the base before the others. He heard the screams of terror and caught a whiff of smoke and burnt hair. The high plasta steel walls that once surrounded the base were smashed and spread across the clearing. To his surprise, he did not hear the roars of space marines reveling in glorious combat, instead he saw a small phalanx of troops holding their ground, not firing but waiting as a horde of the largest natives closed in. He kept running towards his allies, and towards the enemy. Then the world spun around him and he face planted into the gritty earth below. He rolled over quickly to see what he'd tripped on; it was an iron fist scout, just like him. The scout's arm was blown off, splintered bone jutted out of raw flesh and shredded muscle. His chest looked like it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. He pulled his foot off of the man's skinless chest, his boot slid easily on the slippery fat that dribbled and bunched up in little laces that trailed behind his foot as he moved. He started to pull his second leg off when the man sprang back to life and grabbed his foot with a wailing gasp.

"Pllleaa…ahh…" the man suddenly choked and coughed up a slab of musculature and many drops of blood. The man's white teeth had been stained a grotesque shade of dark red, thin red fluid, a mixture of saliva and blood, oozed out of his mouth as he tried to talk. Alexei's gaze was drawn into the man's mouth; he saw a stump where his tongue should have been. He glanced at the slap of muscle on the grass and realized why the man couldn't speak. The iron fist managed to reach towards Alexei with his remaining hand. Alexei thought the man was going to grab at his arm and beg for help, but instead the man touched Alexei's bolter pistol. His bloodshot eyes were pleading. Alexei hesitated for a few moments but gradually reach for his pistol. Then the man's head was pushed back to the ground, a red dot on his forehead. Alexei turned to see Xadrian holding a pistol and frowning with disapproval.

"You took too long, Iron fist." He said with indifference, "We've got more important things to attend to."


	3. Chapter 3

Squad 13 ch3

"General Hullsmasher entered the medical bay, went through an examination, took some medications for his headache and then left." Explained the medical officer calmly, "I can put in a call to reach him, but he won't like it."

"Why's that?" asked Ian

"He's working on his 'personal project', isn't he?" Said Ensign Morris, he turned to Ian, "The commander has been working on a project for several months now. It's not strange for him to be busy most of the time, but now? Now, when our ground troops are under attack? It's strange."

The medical officer turned away from the two and typed into a holoscreen. He was sweating, typing random information into a blank word process program.

"_Pretending to be busy." _Thought Ian, _"He's nervous about something, if I can push him some more, he might spill what he's hiding."_

"That doesn't seem like a normal medical report." Said Ian knowingly, moving closer to get a better look at the hologram, "And you're not even typing in words."

"It's a special code used to send data and updates on the commander's health." Said the officer quickly, "Don't you have better things to do? Like finding the Commander himself instead of bothering me?"

Ian moved closer to the officer and put his hand on the man's shoulder. The man stopped typing and turned around, his eyes burned into Ian and left him feeling strange. Ian shook the feeling off and focused back onto his objective.

"We have vital information that the commander _needs to hear._" He pressured, "You wouldn't want to be the guy whose impatience caused the complete annihilation of the ground troops, would you?"

The medical officer looked down and to the left. He was frowning deeply.

"_He's obviously hiding something. His body language and his tone show that clearly, but what could be so important for him to hide after hearing what I just said?"_

"I…I am sorry." The medical officer said suddenly, "I didn't know it was so serious, I thought you wanted to know about the commander's headaches. As a doctor, I'm forbidden to release personal information like that."

Ensign Morris shook his head and started walking away, "We're wasting time with him, let's just go straight to Hullsmasher!"

Ian followed, turning back to look at the medical officer once more.

"_What a strange guy,"_ thought Ian, _"One minute he seemed like he was hiding something really important, the next he's got a perfectly rational explanation. Talk about multiple personalities…"_

Ω

Skyves let out a primal yell as he burst forward from the phalanx, chainsword in hand, and leapt onto the nearest Spriggan. The sprite was cut clean in half, but three more were already throwing defense chemical attacks at Skyves. He bounded over the attacks and landed on top of another Spriggan, gripping the branches on its skull crown for balance. The other marines below fired at the other Spriggans, which splintered and creaked but refused to fall. Another wave of saplings came from behind. One of the marines cried out in warning and fired into the walking bombs, but it was too late, with most of the saplings already in mid-leap. The marines were decimated. Skyves held on tightly as the great Spriggan threw itself around and bucked to try and get him off. A shot rang out from the north, then more fire. Skyves turned to see three scouts charging in from the edge of the jungle. One threw a fire grenade and burned the saplings, the other two shot at the remaining Spriggans and finished them off. Skyves drove his chainsword down into the Spriggan's skull and leapt off it's lifeless body as it fell.

Matsu, Alexei, and Xadrian approached Skyves quickly. Matsu stopped to take in the obliterated base and the piles of dismembered space marines.

"Good timing, soldiers. We all would have been dead without you." Said Skyves in a rough tone

He dialed up the _End of Horus_.

"Where the hell were those terminators?!" he yelled into the receiver, "We got massacred! There are only four of us left! Where's Hullsmasher!? Well, get him on the line!"

There was a pause, Skyves put the communicator on speaker and glanced at the scouts.

"Hello, Sgt. Skyves. I'm sorry that the battle didn't go well." Said Hullsmasher in a distracted voice, "Good news is-"

"Where the fuck were those terminators?!" Skyves was red in the face and baring his teeth, "Everyone down here is fucking dead because you didn't get them down in time! In fact, they're not here at all! Explain yourself, Hullsmasher!"

"Please, calm down. There was a problem with the drop pods, they wouldn't deploy correctly."

"Then why didn't you send them down in a drop ship, you bastard!?"

"That was malfunctioning as well."

"What kind of game are you playing, Hullsmasher? Are you trying to get us killed?! Trying to finish what you started on Delta 7?!"

Ω

Hullsmasher loaded his bolt pistol and took aim at the communications consul.

"You know what Skyves? I think that communications is having some problems too."

He fired the gun, sparks showered all over and the radio man next to him jumped.

"Sir? What are you-"

Hullsmasher grabbed the man with his huge hands and crushed his skull. He dragged the body down towards the garbage chute and fired it out into space. Grinning widely to himself, Hullsmasher pushed a memory chip into the ship's hard drive. The lights flickered for a moment, and Hullsmasher pulled the chip out. He heard a knock on the door. Immediately he composed himself again, gone was the elongated smile and the mad eyes. He was back to the old Hullsmasher when he turned to face the door.

"Commander?" came a voice, "It's ensign Morris, you said I could speak with you? You're not going to believe what I have to say."

"Try me." Said Hullsmasher with a facial twitch as he opened the door

Ω

"Hullsmasher?! Hey!" Skyves barked into the mike, "Fucking hell!"

Skyves turned to look at the scouts. They all looked bewildered, how was he going to break something like this to them? How was he going to tell them that they were all trapped on the planet?

"Sgt. Skyves, sir?" asked Alexei, "What's going on up there, sir?"

Skyves sighed and leaned against the corpse of the giant Spriggan. He ran his hand through his receding hair and set his Chainsword down.

"I'm afraid…" his voice caught in his throat

"Commander Hullsmasher has left us here to die." Explained Xadrian calmly

Skyves stared at the green scout, his eyes wide with surprise, "How did you know, scout?"

"It was easy to assume. After all, you even said that he was trying to get us killed." Xadrian's eyes were dull, his expression blank, "That temper flare you experienced was due to the fact that we are all going to die on this planet."

He looked at Matsu and Alexei, "Every single one of us."

Skyves glared at Xadrian, "That's not what's going to happen. We'll make it out, all of us!"

"Is that what you told those marines who were slaughtered just a moment ago?" questioned Xadrian calmly, "Or did you let them know that they were just meat shields that you used to ensure your own survival?"

"It wasn't like that!" protested Skyves, "I survived because of sheer luck and skill!"

"There's no such thing as luck." Pressed Xadrian, "Just coincidence and planning…I wonder which saved your life."

Skyves' scar was turning red to match his face. He caressed the chainsword next to him longingly.

"Brothers!" said Matsu, "This isn't the time for squabbles. We're stranded on a hostile planet. This is the time for teamwork."

"Don't bother, Matsu." Said Alexei through his respirator mask, "We all understand that already. Xadrian just wants to get his feelings out in front now so that there aren't any troubles later. Right, Xadr-"

Xadrian's body flickered and Alexei was able to look right through him. He waved his arm through Xadrian and the hologram vanished into a tiny metal disc.

"Sly bastard." Said Skyves, "Guess he doesn't like group survival."

Ω

Hullsmasher walked out from the doors of the comm. room. He looked normal; the same bland stare was on his face as it was fifteen years ago. The same look he'd had since he was born: boredom.

"Ensign Morris. What can I help you with, brother?" he said nonchalantly, "You have something to tell me?"

"Yes sir, we do sir." He motioned to Ian behind him

Hullsmasher cocked an eyebrow, a puzzled look on his face, "Ian? You work in my geneticists group. This must be serious, then. What's about?"

"It's the Spriggans, sir." Explained Ian, "They're not really Spriggans."

Hullsmasher's face melted with curiosity, "Is that so? Then what are they?"

"Genestealers."

Hullsmasher's eyes went wide, he pressed the radio his wrist.

"Docking bay? Come in! Docking bay!?" he let his arm fall to his side again; "Communications are down!"

"But…how?" asked Morris, "Isn't that the comm. room right behind you?"

He motioned to the dull red door. He pushed Hullsmasher aside and opened the door. At once, everything was loud and painful, Ian felt himself being pulled somewhere, the breath in his lungs ripped away. A rush of wind from the comm. Room's open airlock sucked Ensign Morris out into the vacuum of space; Hullsmasher grabbed Ian's arm with one hand and the frame of the door with his other. He pulled himself and Ian back into the hallway and closed the door. Ian fell to the ground, breathing heavily to regain the air that was torn from his lungs.

"What the hell is going on?!" yelled Hullsmasher, "I'm sorry Ian; I need to get to the bridge, and to the bottom of what just happened."

Hullsmasher stalked off quickly, leaving Ian fighting to remain conscious as he lay on the metal floor. Ian's eyes went dark; his last thoughts before forced sleep took him were of Morris's surprised face when he was sucked out to his death.

Ω

A great explosion rocked the ground, tree branches twisted and snapped; small, nameless creatures ran about the ground in terror, their hearing systems burst by the thunderous noise. Another explosion; closer this time. Xadrian woke up, his eyes wide and alert, his sniper already aimed foreword in defense.

"_Life is the meaning of life,"_ he recalled the words of his sergeant, _"What is the great mystery surrounding that? The answer is obvious; it's imprinted on the DNA of every known living thing. If you are living, then you must do your best to not die. It's as simple as that, Xadrian."_

The primitive walls of the Spriggan structure shook badly with every blast. Xadrian leapt to his feet and climbed the wood ladder that led to the top of the shelter. He hung off the wall by his hand, staring out into the dense jungle. He pulled the sniper scope up to his eyes and searched more. He noticed movement, and the crashing of trees. A large organism was moving through the jungle, and it had no need for silence.

Ω

"Our radios are fine." Explained Skyves, "So all we need is a long range transmitter to contact someone for help."

"Where the hell are we going to find that?" protested Alexei, "What we need to do is wait it out. When the rest of the marines on the ship notice some brothers are missing, they'll send landing parties to get us. Radio signal or not, we'll be saved without outside help."

"Nobody will notice that we're missing." Said Skyves angrily, "Hullsmasher will change the reports to make it look like nobody survived. We need to contact our Chapters for help. That's an order!"

Alexei pointed his bolter pistol at Skyves' head, "I'm so fucking sick of you people ordering me around! Maybe we'd be better off without another leader here, after all, remember how well the last leader we had turned out!"

Matsu went white as the memories came back. Skyves' eyes went wide. Nobody had wanted to remember what happened on Delta 7, the orders that Hullsmasher had given them.

Ω

Planet fall was easy. There was nothing, not a damned thing on the planet. That's what Hullsmasher had said, at least. Strange signals and abstract structures littered the planet, nobody had known what to expect. Nobody knew anything at all until it was far too late. They'd spent a few weeks on the planet, bases were established, and thick plasta steel bunkers were built. Command was sure that there was a dangerous life-form on the planet. They deemed the threat so great that it required the aid of all the chapters it could gather in a short time. They'd put Hullsmasher, a grizzled Black Templar veteran, in charge of the mission. But there was nothing to be seen, not a single living organism on the planet. Then it happened. Energy readings went off the charts. A certain location, far out into the desert, was emitting so much sheer energy that it was decided that all the scouts and half the marines were to be send to investigate. Few would ever return alive, none would return unscathed.

Matsu, Alexei, and Xadrian had never met, though all the scouts and scout sergeants were present. They'd all heard the same orders, left on similar missions. At first they were soldiers on a mission, but when those metal demons rose from the sands, they became individuals fighting for survival. Nobody had even thought that the enemy would be Necrons. Sure, there was much evidence that Necrons were present, but the simple fact is this: nobody wanted to believe that the reports were true. And now the sea of silver skeletons rose from the sand. They hit the scout marine forces like lightening hits a dry field. Alexei remembered it vividly. His sergeant, Rivers, was the first man to be shot down by the volleys from gauss rifles. Alexei shivered when Rivers' skull cap had been de-atomized, leaving the bottom half of his head to twitch and moan as his body fell into the sand below. Bolter rounds tore metal from the Necron's ribs and heads, but they never seemed to make any progress. Alexei had wondered why until he spotted a single Necron soldier get blow into pieces by a grenade, only to pull itself back together a few seconds later.

"Get back!" had yelled the Space Wolf in front of him, "Everyone, we have to-"

Scarabs crawled up the man's legs, tearing skin and flesh as they went. He was reduced to a pile of blood and bone in a matter of seconds. Then the Monoliths rose. That was when Alexei decided to run; he turned tail and sprinted as fast as he could. He had turned as soon as the towering pyramids had risen; he knew there was no victory to be found here. As he looked away, the field became eerily silent, he looked back as he ran, and saw that virtually all the scouts were staring at something. He didn't stop to see what they were looking at, he even ran past others who had fled before him. A Telsa blast sent him flying, when he awoke; the field was still loud with bolters and the whirr of gauss fire. He was laying on a medical bed, with a doctor hunched over him, twisting a scalpel in his chest. He breathed in and found that there was a respirator mask over his face.

"What…what…?" his voice came out weakly, like a whisper, "What was everyone looking at?"

The medic glanced up from Alexei's open chest he opened his mouth to speak, but then paused before tapping the medic next to him on the arm, "Tranquilize him again, we'll need to do his eyes next."

Alexei started to struggle, tearing some wires from his arms and chest; he punched the medic in the face, sending him across the room. The second one leapt onto him, driving the needle into his arm.

"Don't fucking touch me!" he screamed, but the second medic had already put the tranquilizer into his bloodstream, he left his rage dissipate and he fell asleep again. When he again came to, he found that his eyes were now biotic. One had been blinded from the Telsa blast, and he wound have had trouble adjusting to having only one biotic eye and they needed him back on the field as soon as possible. His chest had been torn open. The medics had spent hours removing sand from his body, his organs, his veins. Now, along with the eyes, they had replaced his lungs, which were scorched from the blast, with a mechanical respirator system. It wouldn't be the last time he'd have a body part replaced while fighting on Delta 7. Nor would it be the last time that he got extremely luck and was dragged back to the medical station by one or two of his comrades. Then, once the Necrons realized that the medical station was why they weren't the only army getting old troops back over and over again, they sent warriors to deal with the problem.

Alexei heard them first. He heard the screams coming from the medical station and immediately left his post to run after those screams. His boots slid into the sand when he ran, making him fall a few times before he even caught sight of the station. The ten marines that were posted outside were ripped apart, their innards strewn across the gory sand. Alexei pushed the heavy fabric door to the medical station and was hit with a wave of heat. He picked a bolter off of one of the marines and scanned the rooms. Nothing. The screams had ceased, but he still heard something running about the station. His thoughts dwelled on the stories of the Flayed Ones, who ambushed and eviscerated those they fought. His suspicions about the flayed ones became more concrete as he found the first medical officer; his skin was ripped from the flesh. More muffled footsteps, erratic, rushed, and closer than before. The clink of metal on metal, just to his left, Alexei fired through the fabric walls and heard his bullets meet with metal. He pushed the torn fabric aside and saw the very same medical officer who had patched his eyes and lungs, the man was riddled with bolter rounds. He had been trying to send a distress signal using the radio consul, which was also filled with lead. Alexei felt his heart fall to his stomach as he dropped the bolter and started running out of the station. He didn't want to be anywhere near that house of horrors anymore. As he left, he felt a presence following him. He quickly turned around and saw a partially visible thing hovering a few feel above him. It materialized again and the wraith slashed, Alexei managed to pull his bolter pistol out and shoot the wraith's hand away before he was slashed in two. He fired more rounds into the wraith, until its spine broke and it fell to the ground. It crawled towards him, and Alexei felt a rush of rage as its red eyes burned into his.

"_The same eyes,"_ he thought, _"it's got the same eyes as me."_

He crushed it's skull under his boot and turned to report back to his post as marines rushed past him and into the Medical station. Late, as usual. Alexei felt pained as he recalled the orders that were given to the entire allied space marine force soon after the slaughtering of the medical officers.

Ω

"Those were Hullsmasher's orders!" protested Skyves, "His command led us into that mess, not me! If I wasn't the commander of the ground troops nobody would have made it off that rock!"

"I never saw your face or heard your orders once on Delta 7." Said Alexei, "I survived through my own efforts. Maybe Xadrian had the right idea when he left."

He lowered his bolter pistol, "But I'll stick with you for now."


End file.
